Article 22: Peace, Justice, and Nonresistance – living out the only death that leads to real peace
May 15, 2011
BMC- 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 & Ephesians 2:14-18
Introduction: Belfast
Belfast[1]
“In Belfast, Ireland, a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister and a Jewish rabbi were engaged in a heated theological discussion. Suddenly an angel appeared in their midst and said to them, “God sends you his blessings. Make one wish for peace and your wish will be fulfilled by the Almighty.”
“The minister said, “Let every Catholic disappear from our lovely island. Then peace will reign supreme.”
“The priest said, “Let there not be a single Protestant left on our sacred Irish soil. That will bring peace to this island.”
““And what about you, Rabbi?” said the angel. “Do you have no wish of your own?”
““No,” said the rabbi. “Just attend to the wishes of these two gentlemen and I shall be well pleased.”
There is humor in the story because there is truth in it as well isn’t there. When we consider the topics of peace and justice, we have a tendency to believe that if we could just get rid of the other guy that there would be peace or that this would result in justice. We tend to believe that none of the problem resides with us and so to eliminate the other guy is the only way to really have peace.
Yet when we read through Article 22: Peace, Justice, and Nonresistance, eliminating the other guys is not what we read about. In fact, we read quite the opposite. Instead of being encouraged to be violent and eliminate the other guy, we are reminded of the words of Jesus to love our enemies and forgive wrongdoers. We are even reminded of the prophetic visions of the Old Testament that call us to a better way.
Here in article 22, we see the accepted and historic teaching position of the church, a teaching position with roots not only in scripture but also in the first Anabaptist confession of faith, The Schleitheim Confession. And yet we must also be honest with ourselves. When we come to these topics, we are full of divergent opinions and definitions among the broader Christian church. This is even true among fellow Mennonites more broadly and among those gathered here this morning.
Having not grown up Mennonite myself, I know as well as anyone here the challenges to this theological position. And while I myself have come to embrace this understanding of faith, I recognize that we are all at different places in our faith journeys. As such, I don’t stand before you this morning to make the case for the theological correctness of this article or to pat the backs of those who are already in agreement about this. Rather, I would like to use the time this morning to consider some of the root differences in understanding and to encourage us in continued dialogue about our beliefs on this topic and why believe as we do.
This is significant to me, because it seems to me that within our own body and our own denomination, not to mention within our own society; part of our differences really begin with definitions. What do we really mean by the words peace, justice and nonresistance? I think that we tend to define those words differently and in so doing often miss what the other is really getting at.
Peace
For instance, what comes to mind when you hear the word “peace?” Think about it for a moment. What pops into your head? Flowers, a tranquil setting, agreement, the absence of overt conflict? What comes to mind for you?
Perhaps more importantly, if someone were to ask you how we achieve peace, what would be your answer? Through military might, by removing those with which we disagree, by not being honest or forthright about our own feelings or thoughts? I think that it is fair to say that those are common methods within our society and yet as Ephesians 2:14-18 tells us, Jesus, himself is our peace.
Through Jesus, one humanity is created and peace is established because God has reconciled "both sides" to Himself through the cross. As much as we try to demonize "the other guy," the reality is that all people have the same chance at reconciliation with God that we do. Through Christ, all people have equal access to the Father through the Spirit. Thus peace is not just the absence of conflict. It is about the reality of reconciliation.
If that is true, it is no wonder that we see things differently. We’re coming from different starting places. “Peace has come to mean the time when there aren't any wars or even when there aren't any major wars. Beggars can't be choosers; … most of us settle for that. But in Hebrew peace, shalom, means fullness, means having everything you need to be wholly and happily yourself.”[2] There is another way to understand peace and pursue it. We have testimony of that, of people choosing to act differently.
The Israeli Soldier[3]
“Pastor Joe Hensley relates the following story about a soldier, a soldier in the Israeli army.
“One day he was on patrol in an area of occupied Palestine when he felt a rock strike him in the back. Before he had a chance to turn around, another rock had struck him in the shoulder, then another hit his helmet.
“He whirled around, his rifle ready to fire. In his sights were several Palestinian children. Children. They were picking up more stones to throw at him. The soldier did not want to fire, but he could not allow them to attack him again.
“Suddenly, he had an idea. He bent down and picked up three of the rocks. He picked them up and began to juggle. Yes, juggle. The children were mesmerized and forgot about their stones. The soldier did a few tricks, and the children laughed. Then he did a grand finale, and they applauded. He took a bow and walked away.
“No, that soldier did not end the war with his action. But he took what had been hurled as weapons and transformed them into objects of wonder. He took a broken moment and made it whole with the laughter of children. That moment revealed God’s shalom.”
“It’s not likely that that soldier was a Christian, but he knew something about the peace of God, the same peace we believe Jesus the Christ came to bring us and to give us in his death and resurrection. Hensley continues: “Christ took the cross, a tool of torture and death, and transformed it into a symbol of salvation. Christ took death and transformed it into life. Christ took our despair and turned it into hope. He took our sins and juggled them before our eyes that we might forget our hatred and focus on his power and love.”
This is not peace for peace sake. It is peace for Christ’s sake and through Christ’s power. And we are not the only one’s seeking this peace. Just this week in my sermon research, I became aware of a website for ECAPC which stands for “Every Church A Peace Church.” On their site they have this vision…
Our Vision[4]
“The vision of Every Church A Peace Church is the formation of new peace churches and the transformation of war-justifying churches into peace churches, so that the world will be turned toward peace as churches live and teach as Jesus lived and taught. We envision thousands of churches making The Peace Church Affirmation:
The Peace Church Affirmation
Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in God’s work to save the world.”
Justice
Which is why our understanding of justice is so important as well. In a world full of evil and atrocities, justice tends to be defined primarily as punishment doled out to those who have committed wrongs. Punishment and restitution for wrongs committed is certainly a part of justice and yet 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 calls us to so much more. It reminds us that while God does model punishment, God also models grace and reconciliation for us. Rather than always giving us all that we deserve, God works at reconciling with us and calls us to reconcile with others.
In fact, Dorothy L. Sayers says, “When we demand justice, it is always justice on our behalf against other people. Nobody, I imagine, would ever ask for justice to be done upon him for everything he ever did wrong. We do not want justice - we want revenge; and that is why, when justice is done upon us, we cry out that God is vindictive.”[5]
This requires us to look at the bigger picture and to see how our everyday choices may create injustices in the lives of others that lead to painful responses and conflict. If we are to be a people of reconciliation as 2 Corinthians 5 describes, we must also be a people of just living not only justice/retribution seeking. This is important both on a global scale and on a more local scale when we consider our retribution based legal system.
An “advocate of restorative justice who found it the hard way is Wilma Derksen. Her daughter Candace was just 13 when she was abducted on her way home from school in November 1984. Six and a half weeks later, despite a massive search and frequent television appeals, she was found dead of exposure, with both her hands and feet bound.
“Derksen says she and her husband Cliff found themselves isolated, stigmatized and suspected of having killed their own daughter. [Yet] today Derksen heads Victims' Voice, a Mennonite project in Winnipeg for families of murder victims, and she publishes a journal called Pathways, telling stories of people who have seen murder close up. Like others who survived the pain only by learning to forgive, she is passionate about restorative justice.
Those principles say justice is about more than law. It's about people”[6] and it’s about the ministry of reconciliation.
And yet we know from local events in the capture of Samuel Littleton and global events in the death of Osama bin Laden, that this is not how our society and to be honest not how some of us believe we should respond to such terrible atrocities. In fact, many are challenged by the idea of restorative justice in the place of retributive justice, let alone to think of the third part of our article, nonresistance.
Nonresistance
When someone is wronged, we are often reminded of the Old Testament teaching of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We see this as the minimum due to us and yet in its day, this very likely was offered as the maximum to take. Rather than a tit for tat escalation of violence, a tooth for a tooth very well may have been intended to limit the revenge sought.
But what’s even more difficult for us is that we are called to a nonresistant approach to living at peace and seeking justice. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:38-42 that while we have heard and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that we should not even resist an evil person. Instead, we should turn our other check, give our coat also, or go the extra mile.
This is very counter to our cultural myths about the need for violence to bring about peace and justice, and yet it is Jesus who teaches us this. Given our Anabaptist practice of reading all of scripture through the lens of Jesus, this leads us to believe that we are called to living this higher standard; a standard not of inaction, but of reconciling, nonviolent action. This does not negate the place of peace and justice, but merely provides a different medium by which we mitigate and perhaps even define peace and justice. It shifts the goal for peace and justice from me to we.
The Jesuit[7]
A man named John Dear shares that “in the summer of 1982, a few months before [he] entered the Jesuit order, [he] visited the Holy Land to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.”
As he tells it, “On the day I left the United States, Israel invaded Lebanon. When I stepped off the plane in Jerusalem, soldiers carrying machine guns searched me. I had unwittingly walked into a full-scale war...
“I visited the “Chapel of the Beatitudes,” a small, eight-sided stone church that stands on a hill overlooking the sea. I remember sitting there one afternoon, carefully reading the familiar words inscribed on the chapel walls:
“Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those persecuted for the sake of justice, for Jesus. Love your enemies. Be as compassionate as God.
“I walked onto the balcony and surveyed the magnificent Sea of Galilee. It suddenly dawned on me: I think Jesus is serious.
“I turned to the sky and called out to God, “Are you trying to tell me something? Do you want me to hunger and thirst for justice? Do you want me to be a peacemaker? Do you want me to love even my enemies?
“All right,” I declared, “I’ll work for peace and justice for the rest of my life — but on one condition: if you give me a sign!”
“Immediately, two Israeli jets swooped down at me from the sky above the Sea of Galilee. They roared over me, causing a sonic boom. Moments later, they dropped bombs along the Lebanon border.
“Trembling, I made two decisions in that moment. I would devote the rest of my life to working for peace and justice. And I would never ask God for another sign.”
Conclusion: The only death to bring peace
We live in a world in which there is conflict and injustice. And I think that I am safe in saying that all of us here today would agree about the need for peace and justice. I think that the points where we may disagree are more in the areas of what peace and justice really mean and how we get there. And for some of us and for most of our culture, nonresistance or nonviolent action are not even an option to be considered in the mix. And yet, within this article we encounter a biblically based definition of peace and justice that serves as the church’s teaching position on this topic.
Though we may not fully see eye to eye with each other or with our culture, it is my hope that we can remain in dialogue with each other as we continue our journey. It is my hope that we can consider this article as a call to a higher standard and to something bigger than ourselves.
I hope that in a world full of death and a cacophony of calls for more death in the names of peace and justice, that we can agree that we are called to live under one name and to live out one death, that of Jesus and His reconciling death. After all as a friend of mine noted on Facebook after the death of Osama bin Laden, there is only one death that leads to peace and we commemorated that one on Good Friday. May God lead us beyond OUR ways to live out His ways in the world around us.
Amen.
[1] —Anthony de Mello, Taking Flight (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 79. www.homileticsonline.com
[2] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC (New York: HarperCollins
Publishers, [1973] 1993), 83. www.homileticsonline.com
[3] epiphanydc.org/sermons/sermon_2006_04_23_Hensley.pdf. Retrieved November 4, 2006. www.homileticsonline.com
[6] Bob Harvey, Christians and crime, Faith Today, September-October 2000, 34. Homiletics
[7] —John Dear, “Blessed are the nonviolent.” Reprinted with permission of The Other Side, January-February, 1998, theotherside.org.
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